Football

Moves paying off quickly as Tech completes first week of Spring drills

Mar 24, 2012

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Several players who have made position
changes appear to be paying off quickly for the Golden Eagles as
Tennessee Tech wrapped up its first week of 2012 Spring drills on
Saturday.

“I see us being a younger team than we were a year ago and
we’ve got a lot of improvements to make to get better, but we
did get better in the first four days,” said head coach
Watson Brown.

Tech worked in shorts and helmets on Tuesday and Thursday, then
donned full pads for Friday and Saturday practices.

While some new faces who are moving up from redshirt years have
appeared ready to make immediate contributions, some of the most
impressive new looks have come from players in new locations.

The most interesting move includes what amounts to a
‘swap’ of positions between Demetrous Garrett and Josh
Pleasant. A rising senior, Garrett has moved from wide receiver to
cornerback. Pleasant, a redshirt freshman, has gone from cornerback
to wide receiver.

Both have looked good in their new roles, according to Brown.

“Demetrous is doing a good job. He’s mature, he has
good quickness and he’s a very tough kid,” Brown said.
“Josh makes us even younger at receiver, but that’s
okay. We’re very deep and talented there. In fact we’re
younger at both cornerback and receiver across the
board.”

In the secondary, Austin Tallant has moved from free to strong
safety with the return of Marty Jones. When Jones was injured in
the opening game last year, Tallant took over the starting role at
free safety as a true freshman and earned a spot on the OVC
All-Newcomer team.

“This was a good move,” Brown said. “With both
of them back there, it makes us that much stronger.”

Another returnee who has looked good in his new role is Cody
Matthews, who went from the “Z” outside receiver spot
to “W” as an inside receiver.

One promising move among the newcomers has redshirt freshman
Matthew Smith lining up at left offensive tackle. Smith was a
defensive lineman while sitting out the 2011 season.

Tech is also going to benefit from the return of speedy
runningback Tremaine Hudson from a redshirt season. Hudson saw
extensive action as a ball carrier, receiver and kick returner in
2008 and 2009, was limited in 2010 and sat out the 2011 campaign.
He had nearly 1,000 all-purpose yards as a freshman.

“Getting Tremaine back will give us a big boost,”
Brown said. “We’ll have four really good backs with a
lot of quickness. In addition to Hudson, Brown was talking about
Adam Urbano, Stephen Bush and Bud Golden.

“Golden is off to a really good start,” Brown said.
“He’s playing the way we thought he was capable of, and
we’re really deep at runningback.”

“The only disappointing thing is that we don’t have
Darian Stone out here,” Brown said of the talented
quarterback who will be a sophomore in the fall, but is sidelined
during spring drills with mononucleosis.

“”This was going to be a big spring for him, so we
miss him,” Brown said.

Spring drills continue next week with practices Tuesday and
Thursday at 3 p.m., and a scrimmage Saturday at 11 a.m.

Season tickets to follow the 2012 Golden Eagles may be ordered by
visiting the Athletics Ticket Office in Eblen Center or calling
(931) 372-3940.